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Wednesday 2 October 2013

A post that is far too long and doesn't even contain a photo

I'm going to be very honest with you. I don't really know what I'm writing. Because usually, when I sit down to write a blog post it has been going round in my head for a day or two before I sit down and write it. Many blog posts have done this in the last few weeks. For example:

  • A post about how Autumn took me completely by surprise, coming as it did the day after a gorgeous summery day where I took pictures of the Littlest Latte collecting stones on a sunny beach, and how I was forced to abandon the sewing of my Hawthorn dress in Liberty cotton and get around to finishing the star quilt, which was actually already in use on our bed, still pinned together with safety pins.
  • A post about the sheer variety of meals I have made with my unripe tomatoes, after finally giving up hope and dismantling the vegetable patch in a near-blizzard. (For those of you foodies who have come over from Sue's blog, which according to my stats accounts for a lot of you, those meals included Roasted Green Tomato Sauce (a very freezable success), Chicken Thighs with Green Tomatoes (delicious), a green tomato and peach salad for which I have lost the link but which wasn't all that fantastic anyway, and absolutely no fried green tomatoes, because my tomatoes were so tiny that I could barely slice them. There were pictures of the chicken thighs, which are unavailable. (We'll come back to this later.)
  • A post about how I cut down a really big plant, along with pictures of the plant and the area in which it had been planted, which would have been really funny because they were so disproportionately sized.

But here's the thing. If you don't get around to writing a seasonal blog post, it makes no sense. It's no good turning up in the middle of the winter to complain about how chilly Autumn was. And progress has been hampered by a number of factors. (More bullet points! My colleague told me today that they made things look clear and punchy. I aspire very much towards clear and punchy.)

  • I dropped Baileys on my (incredibly old and already failing) laptop, and it finished it off. I told Mr Coffee to start with that it was Horlicks, but I admit now that it was actually Baileys, and Lidl knock-off Baileys at that, which I had promised myself I wouldn't buy if it wasn't December. (It's nearly December!)
  • I had to replace the old, failing and alcohol-soaked laptop with a Kindle fire, because it was so much cheaper and because it allowed me to listen to Bob Harris in the kitchen. I thought I might be able to blog on it too, and read blogs and leave comments. It turns out that to a touch-typist, a miniature touchscreen keyboard is akin to being asked to do delicate needlework wearing boxing gloves. 
  • I lost control of the digital photographs. In an attempt to never lose a single one of my mediocre images, I ended up backing them up all over the shop and ending up with multiple bonkers copies that I could never find, in files called things like "early from old phone" and "camera try number 4". Last night I spent an hour in front of the Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder clicking 'delete' over and over again, and I still have 5,163 duplicates still to go. I'm not kidding. Some of them are 10KB, and have been created just to spite me by my phone, which saves every image five times in different sizes. THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY IS SO HARD.
  • I don't have time. There. I said it. When I had two days off a week, and I had time to faddle around with my duplicate photos and sit at the big old desktop computer drinking cups of coffee and eating chocolate, I could do these things AND shop for food AND ring the bank. Now I can't. The only reason we have food in the house is because Mr Coffee came home a few weeks ago with a chest freezer he bought for a tenner off a bloke's front drive, which I filled with random things that I threw in a trolley.
This week, I read Fluid Pudding's anniversary post, and I asked myself the two questions she asks about whether or not to continue blogging.
  1. Am I having fun? I am. Even if no-one is reading, or no-one is commenting because they're sat in the dark reading on a tablet with droopy eyes. I'll admit that I miss the wholeness of Blogland - the community aspect you only get by properly engaging; I'm sad that I don't have the time. But I work; and I drive Eldest back and forth to her distant school, and I cook, and I do Eldest's physiotherapy and I supervise homework and I dole out Meaningful Parental Advice Which is Then Ignored and I talk to my husband and I get up in the night to deal with Eldest's feet and I play Littlest Pet Shops with Littlest and for at least half an hour a week, I sew. And these are the most important things right now. I love reading blogs. But the time - and the keyboard - I had for commenting is limited.
  2. Am I an asshole? Let's not answer that. Look, at least I didn't bore you with the Big Plant post. It's not as bad as it could have been.

29 comments:

  1. I, for one, am perfectly happy to accept whatever you choose to post whenever you choose to.
    But knock-off Bailey's? Really.

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  2. OMG I am, at this very moment, sat in the dark (reclining, really) with a tablet and droopy eyes. Are you spying on me?!? I haven't had an actual computer since the first of July. Or an actual active blog for even longer. I'll still love you if you'll still love me. And crisp autumn weather certainly beats the sticky never-ending sauna here...

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  3. We still love you! And I am tapping in a tablet in the dark to tell you that. And the cat is helping as I can scratch her while I read, but not while I type, which she strongly objects to. I used to wonder why there were lots of bloggers with small children and few with older ones. Now I know. Life just gets awfully busy.

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  4. I am completely hopeless at both writing and reading at the moment. Oh well, we can be useless and rant at tablets together. Wretched things, My daughter did her homework on one the other day and could we figure out how to email it to her teacher? Not for at least an hour, we couldn't. Now *that's* a first world problem if ever there ever one.

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  5. thank you for being real

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  6. Please don't stop blogging - it's fun for you to write and even more fun for us to read :)

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  7. Oh how I love your posts. You are in a league of your own. Baileys and a laptop were an accident waiting to happen. At least you have got it over with now. I know exactly what you mean about prioritising time. I fear my blog reading days may be numbered, but I shall always make an exception for yours.

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  8. Oh buying baileys before December is the start of the end. I for one just can not go down that route as I only drink it in December, but then drink it I do, in coffee, in hot chocolate and on its own, oh and over icecream too!

    So I say blog when you want to, I will keep on reading

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  9. Well, Coffee Lady, I don't get to the end of long, unillustrated posts unless they are interesting and well-written, with a curve-ball of personality attached. Here I am at the end of yours along with many other commentators, and that's why you should keep at the blogging when, and only when, it suits you.

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  10. I don't think you should give up on your blog, but I do think you need to spend more time drinking wine with me and Gurb!! x

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  11. Aw come on we need those plant pictures

    I've dithered over blogging - the time, whether it 'works' for me any more but cannot get away from the fact that I like to write and I do like to read blogs - I may not be properly doing it (whatever IT is supposed to be) but I'm not yet ready to give up and pack it away and consign blogging to my personal history

    Our lives evolve, our blogs evolve and I think accepting that and going with the flow might be the way forward to finding a new normal that works for us?

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  12. Plant and space it's in would be fun and interesting. "doing needlework in boxing gloves" Oh, can I relate!

    Everyone seems to be cutting down on their blogging these days either because they are wanting to spend more time on their magnus opus or because, like you, life is getting in the way. Blog when you can or when you have something too interesting to keep to yourself. And yes, I'm complaining about the chilly autumn, probably because it seems more like winter. And now I've blogged on you blog.

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  13. As ever I have enjoyed reading all the way to the end - even without a photo.

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  14. Clare from Leeds3 October 2013 at 08:16

    I read your always-interesting blog (pictures or no) because you write honestly about your life, warts and all! I don't like those happy, shiny, fluffy "Look at me! My life's perfect" blogs - I want to read about a life that has many parallels to mine, with feelings like mine, about the ups and downs that are part of a real life. I admire you because you blog, I don't have the courage! So I'm very happy with the occasional peek - do what satisfies YOU!

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  15. Like Blackbird, I am happy to read you any time. I have this catch-up post brewing over at mine, with important stuff like my youngest's 10th birthday and our annual outing to the Royal Melbourne Show. But my house is full of houseguests and school holiday offspring and I can't find the mental quietude. (Hm, that IS a word) to set my thoughts into a blogpost. Ah well.

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  16. bullet points! I can put those in my application! I knew you'd have all the answers.

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  17. Ha ha. You don't have to post too often - just keep 'em funny like this one and no-one will notice. Know what you mean about trying to do 'stuff' on a Kindle Fire. Leaves me feeling like I have had several pints. And I have never had pints, but bet the feeling is similar to doing stuff on a Kindle in a darkened room for an hour or two.

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  18. but I shan't read your blog again if you don't post photos. Tee hee.

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  19. Just drop in every once in a while... we would miss you terribly if you were to disappear completely... we're all in the same boat. I'm tempted to stick 'TAXI' on the roof of my car... I might pick up some rides and make some money whilst I drive to and from all day....

    Hang in there... this to shall pass. (now if only I could remember who said that....)

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  20. ooh, 'ello. I'm rubbish ... I've got a smart, fancypants computer but can't be asked to sit in front of it so I squint at my phone to read but it won't let me comment. Dunno why, looks as though it's going to then just dumps me. Anyway, I'm at my desktop now so I'm commenting, and it's actually working *presses publish*

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  21. I got to the end too. You see, the thing is, you entertain us and we love you to bits, so I am very pleased that you continue to enjoy blogging. Keep it up!

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  22. I always enjoy your posts even if I'm not a frequent commenter - I often read on my phone and I struggle to leave comments with that. I read blogs on my phone because I'm waiting outside primary school/waiting outside gymnastics/waiting outside ballet/waiting at cricket etc etc Just keep blogging when you can, and I'll keep reading!

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  23. Pleasepleaseplease don't stop!

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  24. Why, is there a rule that states where, when, how much one should blog? Do what you're doing, exactly like you're doing it. It's your blog, feel free to write if and when you have time. I love your blog and will be here.
    Knock-off Bailey's scares me a little, I'll admit that.

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  25. How glamorous are you, sloshing baileys over your laptop? I finished my last one off with a hot cup of tea, distinctly less decadent.

    Doesn't matter how often you pop in and out of a blog, in my opinion - still nice to catch up on house of Coffee antics when you do post! And if it's any consolation, I have a tomato post sitting in draft over on my blog. Also a huge tray of tomatoes which I haven't yet cooked, never mind blogged. I'm going to wait until they make themselves into something and blog that.

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  26. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  27. keep blogging! i just found you. good stuff. ann.

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